Freedom of choice

Restricted pharmacy networks are becoming more prevalent, and mandatory mail has long been a threat, but the good news among Patient Views panelists is that more than 8-out-of-10 say their insurance allows them to go to the pharmacy of their choice, according to an exclusive survey of nearly 800 patients conducted by AccentHealth and DSN in late July and early August.

Stay tuned this week, as Patient Views further explores pharmacy satisfaction and what it would take to get them to break allegiances and switch pharmacies.

Patient Views is a new, exclusive consumer insights feature that will be appear in every edition of DSN magazine and the daily e-newsletter DSN A.M. If you could ask 4,000 patients anything at all, what would it be? Send your questions to [email protected].

SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. — McKesson Patient Relationship Solutions has been named a finalist in both the 2012 Medical Marketing and Media Awards and the PM360 Trailblazer Awards, McKesson announced Friday.

McKesson was named a finalist by MM&M in the "Best Use of Direct Marketing to Consumers" category for its "Lap-Band Behavioral Call" campaign on behalf of Ogilvy Healthworld and Allergan. The MM&M Awards annually recognize creativity and marketing effectiveness in health care.

In addition, the "Lap-Band Behavioral Call" campaign also was selected by PM360 for the Best Direct Marketing to Patient Campaign Award. PM360 also selected McKesson’s LEO Quality Care Program for the Best Persistence Campaign Award. The PM360 Trailblazer Awards are given to companies, marketers and brand managers representing top talent and brands. Selected by the PM360 editorial board from more than 800 award applications, finalists represent the most forward-thinking leadership of their fields.

The "Lap-Band Behavioral Call" campaign focused on consumers who had requested initial information about the weight-loss procedure, but had not responded to invitations to attend an informational seminar. Taking the leads generated through DTC efforts, McKesson developed an outreach solution designed to maximize conversion opportunities through live behavioral calls to help guide the consumer through the decision process.

Campaign strategies included assigning a McKesson patient support representative to each consumer to build personal conversations and crafting behavioral-based call center scripts to uncover barriers and help guide patients through the information-gathering and procedure-decision process.

As a result of the outreach, more than 5,000 incremental informational seminars were scheduled and 93% of patients who scheduled through the program attended seminars. This represented a six-fold increase in attendance for consumers that received phone calls, compared to those who only received emails, McKesson noted. In addition to the additional seminars scheduled, many patients bypassed the seminar phase with more than 2,600 scheduling a Lap-Band procedure and 1,000 scheduling an initial consultation with a surgeon.

The LEO Quality Care Program was conducted on behalf of LEO Pharma, makers of the Taclonex brand of products, and was designed to provide additional patient education materials and support to patients suffering from plaque psoriasis. The program featured three primary components — a patient start kit, a support line and follow-up emails and direct mailers.

The campaign results highlighted that patients who received additional support and education through the program were more likely to be adherent to their medications over time. For example, results demonstrated that patients who registered to receive communications from registered nurses and health educators were 20% more likely to receive a second and third prescription fill when compared to patients who only receive co-pay support.

The healthcare future is here

WHAT IT MEANS AND WHY IT’S IMPORTANT — Digitizing the medical records of 150 million patients means that nearly half of the entire population of the United States will have its records stored electronically next year. It’s an ambitious goal, but more importantly, it’s a major step toward the transformation of the healthcare system toward an electronic, digitized model.

(THE NEWS: Surescripts, Epic partner on electronic health records. For the full story, click here.)

Already, by the end of last year, 58% of office-based physicians were using electronic prescribing, according to Surescripts, as well as 91% of retail pharmacies. And in July of this year, Minnesota was ranked first in the country for use of e-prescribing in Surescripts’ seventh annual Safe-Rx Awards, with 61% of prescriptions routed electronically in the state. Meanwhile, Massachusetts and New Hampshire showed the highest rate of physician adoption of e-prescribing, with 86% each.

In February 2012, a study by management consulting firm Accenture found that the United States has become a leader in the use and adoption of healthcare information technology. The study compared the United States with Canada, Australia, England, France, Germany, Spain and Singapore. At that time, about 62% of specialists in the United States were using electronic tools to improve administrative efficiency, such as electronic scheduling and billing, compared with the global average of 49%, while the percentage of U.S. physicians entering their notes electronically during and after appointments was equal to the percentages in other countries.

Most notably, however, 54% of physicians in the Accenture study were sending prescriptions electronically, compared to an average of 20% for the other countries.

In other words, the future is here — and health care is on the front lines of it.

Pulitzer Prize-winner Peggy Noonan, former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush and singer Diana Ross now feature on the schedule for the National Association of Chain Drug Stores Annual Meeting, slated for April 21-24 in Palm Beach, Fla.

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